"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." ~ Thomas Jefferson

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Spinning The "Islamist" Polls And Why It's Damaging

Remember the good old days when the Liberal Media was, well, Liberal?

Yesterday I commented that CNN's Heidi Collins reported on a poll that showed an overwhelming majority of Muslims living in the US as not only having strong work ethics, but also being opposed the suicide bombings.

78% believe that suicide bombings are NOT justified.8% believed that suicide bombings ARE justified.15% of young Muslims believe that suicide bombings are justified.

At any rate and any age suicide bombings are a massively unpopular idea amongst a very clear majority of Muslims living in America.

But CNN, perhaps sensing the wrath of the Patriotism Police has repeatedly spun this poll - which should make Muslims look better, into something which is making Muslims look worse.

Again, the majority of Muslims who did not approve of suicide bombings were ignored and the minority of Muslims who did approve of such attacks was highlighted.

Polls are taken to find out what a majority of people think, not what a minority of people think.

I bet there are at least 8% of whites who still think hanging African Americans is acceptable and wishes slavery was still permissible.

I bet 15% of young people think that school shootings are acceptable and justified.

The point is a minority of people are always going to be off balance, no matter what country you are from. I believe that about 30% of any given population is off balance in whatever way is unique to them.

That's why it's important to look at what the majority of people are saying, because there is always going to be crackpots that think that Timothy McVeigh was a hero or the Anarchist Cookbook is the best piece of "literature" ever.

The majority of Muslims in America are saying that suicide bombings are not justified. That majority is being insulted every time their numbers are ignored to focus on the 8% of nutcases who believe the bombings are justified.

It's just another example of biased and unfair reporting.

Why not report on the good and obvious news? 78% of Muslims in the US do not condone this type of violence. I believe this indicates the "martyr jihad-jihad" ideology is a regional and political problem in the middle east, and not a problem within the religion itself.

Because of the violence and extremism in Iraq and other scattered regions of the Middle East there is a perception that every single Muslim is an "Islamist". I think this is a mistake that not only isolates us from the moderate Muslims but also weakens the moderate Muslims and empowers the extremist.

So as long as were willing to lump all these people together regardless of what they believe or how they act, rail about all the negative while ignoring their positive accomplishments and the progression they do make, then how are we encouraging anyone to be more Democratic?

When you are in control and people are "good" you should reward them with praise and incentives, that way they are inclined to continue the "good" behavior.

But when you are in control and people are "good" and you instead start looking for something bad to highlight you are not giving the people any incentive to repeat the "good" behavior". It's really that simple.

Or, as Benjamin Franklin said :

"If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect."

All of this, of course, only persuades me to buy a TV card for my PC, that way I can post video in the future, I can't always rely on someone else having the video of something I want to post.

And it reminds me to remind everyone else who hasn't seen "Buying The War" yet to watch it soon.

UPDATE:

Thankfully not everyone is spinning the poll, but some people are getting hysterical over it. Let's compare and contrast some headlines.

From the corner where they are spinning so much they are dizzy and that must explain their incoherence :

"Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day." ~ Thomas Jefferson

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